Blazer Mills ruins, the site of Buckshot Roberts last stand.

The fight of Buckshot Roberts at Blazer's Mill, on the Mescalero Indian Reservation, is perhaps the most remarkable combat of one man against odds ever known in the West.

Roberts was, at one time, a member of the famous Texas Rangers, and had reputation as an  Indian fighter. He had been badly shot by the Comanche. Again, he was on the other side, against the Rangers, and once stood off 25 of them, although nearly killed in this encounter. From these wounds he was so badly crippled in his right arm that he could not lift a rifle to his shoulder. He was usually known as "Buckshot" Roberts because of the nature of his wounds.

Roberts took up a little ranch in the beautiful Ruidoso Valley of central New Mexico, one of the most charming spots in the world; and all he asked was to be let alone, for he seemed able to get along, and not afraid of work. When the Lincoln County War broke out, he was recognized as a friend of Major Lawrence G. Murphy, one of the local faction leaders; but when the fighting men curtly told him it was about time for him to choose his side, he curtly replied that he intended to take neither side; that he had seen fighting enough in his time, and would fight no man's battle for him. This, for the time and place, was treason, and punishable with death. Roberts' friends told him that Billy the Kid and Dick Brewer intended to kill him, and advised him to leave the country.

It is said that  Roberts had closed out his affairs and was preparing to leave the country, when he heard that the gang was looking for him, and that he then gave them opportunity to find him. Others say that he went up to Blazer's Mill to meet a friend of his by the name of Kitts, who, he heard had been shot and badly wounded. There is other rumor that he went up to Blazer's Mill to have a personal encounter with Major Godfroy, with whom there had been some altercation. There is a further absurd story that he went for the purpose of killing  Billy the Kid, and getting the reward which was offered for him. These latter things are unlikely. The probable truth is that he, being a brave man, though fully determined to leave the country, simply found it written in his creed to go up to Blazer's Mill to see his supposedly wounded friend, and also to see what there was in the threats which he had heard.

There were three eye-witnesses of what happened at that time:  Frank and George Coe, ranchers on the Ruidoso today, and Johnnie Patten, a cook on the Carrizzo Ranch. Patten was an ex-soldier of H Troop, Third Cavalry, and was mustered out at Fort Stanton in 1869. At the time of the Roberts fight, he was running the sawmill for Dr. Blazer. 

Frank Coe said that he himself was attempting to act as peacemaker, and that he tried to get  Roberts to give up his arms and not make any fight. Patten said that he, at the peril of his life, had warned  Roberts that Dick Brewer, Billy the Kid, and his gang intended to kill him. It is certain that when  Roberts came riding up on a mule, still wet from the fording of the Tularosa River, he met there Dick Brewer,Billy the Kid, George Coe, Frank Coe, Charlie Bowdre,  John Middleton, one Scroggins, and “Dirty Steve” Stevens, with others, to the number of thirteen in all. These men claimed to be a posse, and were under Dick Brewer, "special constable."

The Brewer party withdrew to the rear of the house. Frank Coe parleyed with Roberts at one side. Kate Godfroy, daughter of Major Godfroy, protested at what she knew was the purpose of Brewer and his gang. Dick Brewer said to his men, "Don't do anything to him now. Coax him up the road a way."

Roberts declined to give up his weapons to Frank Coe. He stood near the door, outside the house. Then, as it is told by Johnnie Patten, who saw it all, there suddenly came around upon him from behind the house, the gang of Billy the Kid, all gunfighters, each opening fire as he came. The gritty little man gave back not a step toward the open door. Crippled by his old wounds so that he could not raise his rifle to his shoulder, he worked the lever from his hip.

Here were a dozen men, the best fighting men of all that wild country, shooting at him at a distance of not a dozen feet; yet he shot Jack Middleton through the lungs, though failing to kill him. He shot a finger off the hand of George Coe, who then left the fight. 

George Coe, in 1934, displays the shot off finger.

Roberts then half stepped forward and pushed his gun against the stomach of Billy the Kid. For some reason the piece failed to fire, and the Kid was saved by the narrowest escape he ever had in his life. 

Charlie Bowdre now appeared around the corner of the house, andRoberts fired at him next. His bullet struck Bowdre in the belt, and cut the belt off from him. Almost at the same time, Bowdre fired at him and shot him through the body. He did not drop, but staggered back against the wall; and so he stood there, crippled of old and now wounded to death, but so fierce a human tiger that his very looks struck dismay into this gang of professional fighters. They actually withdrew around the house and left him there.

Roberts now staggered back into the house. He threw down his own Winchester and picked up a heavy Sharps rifle which belonged to Dr. Appel, and which he found there, in Dr. Blazer's room. Brewer told Dr. Blazer to bring Roberts out, but, like a man, Blazer refused.  Roberts pulled a mattress off the bed to the floor and threw himself down upon it near an open window in the front of the house.

The gang had scattered, surrounding the house. Dick Brewer had taken refuge behind a thirty-inch sawlog near the mill, just 140 steps from the window near which this fierce little fighting man was lying, wounded to death. Brewer raised his head just above the top of the sawlog, so that he could see what  Roberts was doing. His eyes were barely visible above the top of the log, yet at that distance the heavy bullet from  Roberts' buffalo gun struck him in the eye and blew off the top of his head.

Billy the Kid was now leader of the posse. His first act was to call his men together and ride away from the spot, his whole outfit whipped by a single man! There was a corpse behind them, and wounded men with them.

Thirty-six hours later there was another corpse at Blazer's Mill. The doctor, brought over from Fort Stanton, could do nothing for  Roberts, and he died.